Tag Archives: Justice

“Philosophy and Poverty”, a new fully peer-reviewed book series published by Springer. The first volume is scheduled to be published in 2018. The book series is edited by Henning Hahn, Gottfried Schweiger and Clemens Sedmak, whose work is supported by an international Advisory Board. It is the first book series to focus exclusively on philosophical research on poverty, which is an area of increasing interest and high social and political importance. The book series is not restricted to issues of ethics and justice which dominate the philosophical research on poverty, but is also open to questions related to the philosophy of science, epistemology or history of philosophy insofar as they relate to poverty.

The first workshop with Monique Deveaux (U of Guelph) will take place on May 12 and 13, 2016. There is no specfic theme and all papers on philosophy and poverty are welcome but preference will be given to papers that are related to the topic of the paper of Monique Deveaux: “Global Justice from Below?: The Value of Social Movement Approaches to Poverty Reduction”. The detailed call for papers and more information on that workshop can be found in that PDF or here: www.philosophypoverty.blogspot.com

Uniting Mississippi applies a new, philosophically informed theory of democratic leadership to Mississippi’s challenges. Governor William F. Winter has written a foreword for the book, supporting its proposals.

The book begins with an examination of Mississippi’s apparent Catch-22, namely the difficulty of addressing problems of poverty without fixing issues in education first, and vice versa. These difficulties can be overcome if we look at their common roots, argues Eric Thomas Weber, and if we practice virtuous democratic leadership. Since the approach to addressing poverty has for so long been unsuccessful, Weber reframes the problem. The challenges of educational failure reveal the extent to which there is a caste system of schooling. Certain groups of people are trapped in schools that are underfunded and failing. The ideals of democracy reject hierarchies of citizenship, and thus, the author contends, these ideals are truly tested in Mississippi. Weber offers theories of effective leadership in general and of democratic leadership in particular to show how Mississippi’s challenges could be addressed with the guidance of common values.

Las Torres de Lucca is an international peer-reviewed biannual publication featuring articles and book reviews of Political Philosophy in both English and Spanish. It is edited and published by Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

We welcome submissions for the 2013 issues (January-June and July-December). Articles must be original and unedited, presented as Open Office, Microsoft Word format or any other software fulfilling the features of the Open Document Format for Office Applications.

Matthew Adler has a major new book with OUP that will interest many readers of this blog. Here is the description:

Well-Being and Fair Distribution provides a rigorous and comprehensive defense of the “social welfare function” as a tool for evaluating governmental policies. In particular, it argues for a “prioritarian” social welfare function: one that gives greater weight to well-being changes affecting worse-off individuals. In doing so, the book draws on many literatures: in theoretical economics, applied economics, philosophy, and law. Topics addressed include the following: the nature of well-being and the possibility of interpersonal comparisons; the measurement of well-being via “utility” numbers; why a “prioritarian” social welfare function is more appealing than alternative forms (for example, a utilitarian, leximin, or “sufficientist” function); whether fair distribution should be conceptualized on a lifetime or sublifetime basis; and social choice under uncertainty.

Punishmentis the most comprehensive monograph on the subject available. It is accessible for readers coming to the topic for the first time with new arguments and developments in each chapter that will be of interest to those already working in the field, including the defence of a new theory of punishment: the unified theory of punishment and its ideal of punitive restoration.

The blurb:
“Punishmentis a topic of increasing importance for citizens and policy makers. Why should we punish criminals? Which theory of punishment is most compelling? Is the death penalty ever justified? These questions and many others are addressed in this highly engaging guide. Punishment is a critical introduction to the philosophy of punishment offering a new and refreshing approach that will benefit readers of all backgrounds and interests. This is the first critical guide to examine all leading contemporary theories of punishment, including the communicative theory of punishment, restorative justice, and the unified theory of punishment. There are also several case studies examined in detail including capital punishment, juvenile offending, and domestic abuse.